In the gas turbine engine field, rotor assemblies are typically formed of axially adjacent rotor disks from which pluralities of blades extend radially across the path of working medium gases flowing through the engine. An example of such a bladed rotor stage assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,898 entitled "Bladed Rotor Assemblies" issued to Guy et al. In this assembly, a plurality of sealing plates extend from the rotor disk to each rotor blade platform to lock the blades in place in the fore and aft direction and to block leakage between the platforms and the disk. Another locking device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,713,991 entitled "Rotor Blade Locking Device " issued to Secord et al. In this construction, the locking device is a circumferentially extending cylinder. The rotor blade has an L-shaped lip which engages the cylinder such that the cylinder presents two shearing planes in the wire to resist movement of the blade in a generally axial direction. These shearing planes are transversely oriented to the longitudinal axis of the cylinder.
Notwithstanding the availability of the above locking devices, scientists and engineers continue to seek improved locking devices which are light in weight and which block the leakage of working medium gases between the rotor blade and the rotor disk.